Dynamic Modeling and Optimum Load Control of a

PM Linear Generator for Ocean Wave Energy

Harvesting Application
Haojie Luan, Omer C. Onar, and Alireza Khaligh
Energy Harvesting and Renewable Energies Laboratory, Electric Power and Power Electronics Center (EPPEC),
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3301 S. Dearborn St. Chicago, IL 60616;
Tel: (312) 567-3444; Fax: (312) 567-8976; Email: [email protected]; URL: www.ece.iit.edu/~khaligh

Abstract—This study presents a permanent magnetic linear to the final stage and commercial deployment [6]. In this
generator based system for ocean wave energy harvesting paper, a linear generator based ocean wave energy harvesting
applications. The use of linear generator as energy converter system is proposed. The distinct property of this linear
enables a direct coupling of the motion of the buoy to the energy generator is existence of variable frequency current and
harvesting system. Mathematical model governing the system is
voltage. In order to extract the maximum output power from
presented; frequency domain analysis reveals that conversion
rate varies with respect to load resistance. Detailed numerical the proposed structure, an AC/DC rectifier followed by a
results including average power, system efficiency are obtained DC/AC converter is used to provide the flexibility of actively
using MATLAB®, Simulink®, SimPower-Systems®. The optimum controlling the power. According to the dynamic model of the
load value is found based on the fully physics simulation of the proposed system, we could observe that the power and
system. To this end, current control application to the boost efficiency of the generator depend on the load resistance. For
converter is presented. Presented results show that the controller further improvement of the efficiency of the proposed system,
successfully regulates the current. The proposed system is an optimum load resistance value is numerically specified for
designed to operate with the optimum load value. the proposed system. This idea, however, is applicable to
—
Keywords Ocean wave energy harvesting, permanent magnet
other designs and is validated by simulation results. Current
control technique helps to maintain this value regardless of
linear generator, boost converter, current control technique.
actual load variation. The rest of this paper is organized as
follows. The system operation principle, modeling and
I. INTRODUCTION efficiency equations are given in Section II. The optimum load
Interests in energy harvesting from renewable sources have is defined and confirmed through analytical analysis and
been increased due to environmental and economical issues. simulation in Section III. The power conditioning technique
Among renewable energy harvesting technologies which are for keeping system operating on the optimum load is
still being investigated through various industrial and presented in Section IV. Finally, some concluding remarks are
academic groups, ocean energy harvesting technology has given in Section V.
already shown to be feasible, since oceans cover almost 70%
of earth’s surface [1]. Various methods have been purposed II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION
for converting ocean wave energy into practically usable
electrical energy. In [2], authors proposed a system consisting A system level diagram is shown in Fig. 1. The system consists
of a floating buoy with an air chamber and an air driven of a permanent magnet linear generator, an AC/DC converter,
generator. The electrical energy is extracted from rotating the and a boost DC/DC converter to control the optimal power
turbine by varying pressure in the air chamber, when the extraction of the generator.
waves hit the body. However, this requires good mechanical
insulation through the air chamber and the ventilating
generator to achieve efficiency, which brings design
complexity and additional cost to the system. In [3] and [4] the
authors propose a Salter Cam design, which rolls around a
fixed inner cylinder by the activation of an incoming wave.
Power can be captured through the differential rotation
between the cylinder and the cam. The problem with this
design is the fluctuation of the efficiency ranging from 0-75%
depends on the power rating [5]. By 2008, hundreds of
prototype devices had been purposed but only 20 of them Fig.2. Linear generator.
stepped up the second phase and some of them are really close

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 Fig.1. System level configuration of the linear generator and power converters.
The conversion rate of the system can be expressed as the
The dynamic model of the wave activated linear generator ratio of the electric power generation over the total wave
has been derived using the force equations of the linear power which is also the system efficiency.
generator in [7]. These force equations are modified and
their physical meanings are expressed here. η = P / Pw a v e = 8 π N 2 B 2 L 2 ∫ ( Z& − X& ) 2 d t / ρ g 2 a 2 T 2 D R (6)
As in Fig.2, this two degree of freedom mechanical system
will generate power by electro-magnetic induction. The III. OPTIMUM LOAD ANALYSIS
generator is enclosed in a buoy and fixed to the buoy base
through a spring. The generator has a rectangular wire loop From the efficiency equation, it can be observed that the
of N turns, directly supported by the buoy frame and a system efficiency is a function of both relative speed of buoy
system with two permanent magnets that are connected by and wired loop and the load resistance. In practice, both fluid
helical springs to the buoy. The wire loop moves between viscosity and spring constant are small. They exert dumping
the magnets and electro-magnetically induces power. By force way less than that of the induction to the heavy buoy.
targeting at both the buoy and the wire loop, we could get a However, for a lighter wired loop, these effects are almost
pair of second order equations describing the motion of the not negligible. Taking these facts into account, motion
system: equations can be simplified to the following state space
description:
..
B2 N 2 L2 . . .
(M + M a ) Z = ρ gK p aa cos(ωt ) − (Z − X ) − K (Z − X ) − b Z − ρ gAZ (1) ⎡ 0 1 0 0 ⎤
R
⎢ ⎥
⎡ x&1 ⎤ ⎢ −ρgA −(B N L / R)
2 2 2
B2N2L2 / R ⎥ ⎡x1 ⎤ ⎡0⎤
..
B 2 N 2 L2 . . 0
Mm X = − (X − Z) − K(X − Z) (2)
⎢ ⎥ ⎢
x&2
⎢ ⎥ =⎢ M + M M + M M + Ma ⎥ ⎢⎢x2 ⎥⎥ ⎢⎢1⎥⎥ ρgKpaa
R
a a
⎥ + cos(ωt)
⎢x& ⎥ ⎢ 0
3 0 0 1 ⎥ ⎢x3 ⎥ ⎢0⎥ M + Ma
where M is the mass of the buoy (mass of the spring ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
(7)
⎣⎢x&4 ⎦⎥ ⎢ K B2N2L2 / R −K −B2N2L2 / R⎥ ⎣⎢x4 ⎦⎥ ⎣⎢0⎦⎥
supported magnetic system is not included), Ma is the added ⎢ M Mm Mm Mm ⎥⎦
mass, Mm is the mass of the wire loop, b is the fluid viscosity ⎣ m

at temperature 20°C, ρ is the water density, Kp is the pressure where the following substitution applies:
response factor, aa is the wave amplitude, K is the total x1 = z , x2 = z& , x3 = x , x4 = x& ;
spring constant, ω is the wave frequency, Z is the buoy
displacement, X is the wire loop displacement, L is the wire The general solutions to these linear equations in frequency
length, and N is the number of wire loops. domain are given by:
x( jω ) = ( jω − A)−1 x (0) + ( jω − A) −1 BU ( jω ) (8)
The system with permanent magnets is excited by the force Where A is the state matrix, B is the input and x(0)
that is transmitted through two helical springs. The electric
power generation can be expressed as, represents the initial conditions [8]. The first term describes
the transient response of the system and it is not effective in
N 2 B 2 L2 . .
the steady-state response. The second term describes system
P = (Z − X )2 (3)
R behavior under particular perturbation. In this case, it takes
The average power, P over one wave period T can be the form of sinusoidal wave as the assumption that ocean
obtained by integrating the power equation given in (4). wave moves in this pattern. Consequently, the solution
T would consist of a pure sinusoidal wave at the same
1
P = P dt (4) frequency as the input sine wave. The amplitude and phase
T ∫0 determined by the system’s frequency response at that
The power which is carried by an ocean wave can be frequency is given by:
expressed as: G (t ) = Gs ( jω ) cos(ω t + ∠ϕ s ) (9)
PW = ρ g 2 a 2 T D / 8 π (5)

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 740

 One reasonable design of this PM linear generator is given in
[6], the associated physical parameters are:
M = 1344 Kg , M a = 119.5 Kg , L = 2.64m , K = 1 , B = 1.4T
, A = 4.86m 2 , L = 2.64m , N = 30 .
Furthermore, we assume, D = 2.5m , K p = 0.9 , aa = 1.5m
and ω = 2π (rad / s ) .
With implementation of these parameters, the state-transition
matrix can be written as:
⎡ 0 1 0 0 ⎤
⎢ ⎥
⎢ −32.5
8.4 8.4
− 0 ⎥ Fig. 4. Average power and efficiency variation versus load resistance.
⎢ R R ⎥
A= ⎢ 0 0 0 1 ⎥ According to the results, the maximum power and
⎢ ⎥ maximum efficiency values can be achieved for a particular
⎢ 61.47 61.47 ⎥
⎢
0.005 −0.005 − value of the load resistance. Ideally, the system should
⎣ R R ⎥⎦ operate at this point. In order to achieve this goal, a current
According to the above analysis, the roots of the motion regulation is provided using a current controlled DC/DC
equations are calculated as follow: boost converter.
xi = Gi ( j 2π ) 9 cos(2π t + ∠Gi ( j 2π )) (10)
IV. POWER CONDITIONING
s 2 R + 61.47 s + 0.005 R
G1 (2π j ) = The generator power and generator voltage are both in
s R + 69.87 s 3 + 32.505s 2 R + 1997.7 s + 0.1625 R s=2π j
4
sinusoidal form as shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, respectively.
s( s 2 R + 61.47 s + 0.005 R ) The generator power has a biased sinusoidal waveform.
G2 (2π j ) =
s R + 69.87 s 3 + 32.505s 2 R + 1997.7 s + 0.1625 R s =2π j
4

61.47 s + 0.005 R
G3 (2π j ) =
s R + 69.87 s + 32.505s 2 R + 1997.7 s + 0.1625 R s =2π j
4 3

s(61.47 s + 0.005 R )
G4 (2π j ) =
s 4 R + 69.87 s 3 + 32.505s 2 R + 1997.7 s + 0.1625 R s =2π j

These solutions are substituted within the system efficiency

equation (3); then it is observed that system efficiency is a
complex function of resistance R. It is also noticed that by
picking a particular R, the system efficiency may be
maximized.
Fig.5. Generator power.
Since the analytical solution of system efficiency results in
very complicated expressions, the system’s dynamic model
is implemented and the solutions of its motion are analyzed
numerically using MATLAB and Simulink. The numerical
solutions are in good accordance with our analytical
solutions. Once these displacements are known, they are
used to observe other system dynamics and calculate other
variations. Here, the efficiency (Energy conversion rate) is
used as our performance criteria.

In the simulation environment, a variable resistance is used

to present the effect of the load resistance on extracted power
and efficiency. A sinusoidal source is used to represent the
ocean waveform. The resistance-average power and
resistance-efficiency curves are shown in Fig. 4, which share Fig.6. Generator voltage.
the same x axis.
In order to regulate the generator’s output power and voltage,
the output of the linear generator terminals is first converted

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 741

 to the DC voltage and then filtered. Considering the large
oscillations in the output, a large capacitor is required to
achieve satisfactory voltage regulation performance. A boost
DC-DC converter operating in the current control mode is
employed, since the input voltage to boost converter is the
output voltage of the rectifier and that is fixed. Current
control mode [9] helps optimum loading of the linear *
ii Re f ii
generator since the equivalent Thevenin’s impedance is
determined by the converter input voltage and current. The
advantages of current control includes: (1) Failures due to
the excessive switch current can simply be prevented by
monitoring the data obtained via measuring the inductor
current and (2) Simplicity of design feedback control
because of the removal of one pole from the characteristic Fig.7. Reference current tracking and power output for a 2000Ω load.
equation of the system.

The duty ratio of the PWM generator is controlled by a

PI controller as:
D(t ) = K p ε (t ) + K i ∫ ε (t )dt (11)
where ε(t) is the error that is the difference between the
reference and measured current and calculated as *
ii Re f ii
ε (t ) = ii Re f (t ) − ii * (t )
(12)
Assuming a lossless converter, the power at the input and
output of the converter are equal. Hence, the reference
current is calculated as the ratio of DC voltage over optimum
resistance value:
v (t ) Fig.8. Reference current tracking and power output for 100Ω load.
ii Re f ( t ) = (13)
Ropt The optimum load value(equivalent impedance) is shown in
The two gains parameters are obtained based on the Fig.9, where it is seen that the system indeed operates on the
averaging model of the boost converter [10]. desired point.

In our simulated topology, the output voltage of the AC-DC

rectifier is fixed at 720V. In order to get the maximum power
at this condition, the optimal resistance value equals to 17Ω
which yields 42A reference current approximately. It is
worth mentioning that this computation only provides a
reference to this design. In actual simulation, the
instantaneous resistance value is derived from the ratio of
DC voltage over the controlled current associated with the
maximum power Figs.7 and 8 show the reference current
tracking and power performance of the system with different
actually load. From these figures, we could observe that the
two systems have almost identical responses. Under either
condition, the systems are capable of outputting 12,000 W of
power and track the desired reference current within 3s. This Fig.9. Optimum Load Value.
indicates that the proposed system is robust to load change
and is able to directly support actual load. Therefore, V. CONCLUSION
regardless what is connected at the output, by controlling the
input current of the boost converter under fixed input voltage, In this study, dynamic model and control of permanent
you can control the equivalent resistance. The fixed input magnetic generator based ocean wave energy harvesting
voltage for the converter is provided by the rectifier and system has been presented. In order to extract maximum
capacitor connected at the generator terminals. energy from the ocean wave and improve energy conversion
rate, the optimum load value is found. System dynamic,
frequency domain analysis and simulation result confirms
that operation of system in this point leads to the maximum

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 742

 conversion efficiency. An AC/DC rectifier followed by a
boost converter is used to condition power as well as track
the optimum load control value.

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